Lover's Identity

Rocky opened his eyes and saw that he was all alone, lying in an expensive and comfortable bed in a luxurious and huge hospital. He looked around and then rose and walked towards a mirror and looked at his reflection and smiled. Elgin mumbled, "Is love turning me into evil? Am I doing something wrong? Aliyah says that we shouldn't turn away from doing some small sins for the greater good. Should I tell Cindy that everything she is seeing is a false? A fallacy? No, never. She will never forgive me for what I did. Maybe, she will never be able to recover from such grievous accident. I cannot let my Cindy go through such unimaginable pain and atrocity." He looked at his reflection and touched his face, "If she likes this face so much and if I have to spend my whole life pretending to be this guy to keep my Cindy happy, then I will not back away from it." He slowly opened the door and went to the bathroom. He looked around and then spitted out some pinkish liquid out of his mouth and flushed it." He looked at the mirror and wiped his face. Though he was an elf and was quite tolerant to human weapons, but last night he injured himself too badly and the pinkish substance was his blood. He was in some ways internally bleeding and he had to contact Aliyah as soon as possible. He walked outside and a girl ran towards him and hugged him tightly.

She then kissed him passionately and said, "Do you know how much afraid I got last night when father informed me about the burglary attempt on you? I was literally praying to every God of religion for your well-being." She again hugged him tightly. Elgin sighed and closed his eyes. The warm feeling of Cindy's bosom touching his chest was melting him like fire melts candles. He looked at her and smiled, "I'm not going to leave you so easily, Cindy. Our bond is for lifetimes and in every lifetime I will come for you." Cindy smiled, "From when did you became so poetic?" Elgin smiled, "Maybe this those batons on my head brought out the poet out of me." Cindy smiled, "Whatever. Take rest. Papa is going on a special meeting with Tom uncle and his son, Cameron and he insisted my presence too. I will see you tomorrow morning." She kissed him and went away. Elgin sighed and closed the door. He locked the door from inside and then created a sphere around him and teleported to Alice's house.

Alice was not there and Elgin here and there and saw his reflection in the mirror. He mumbled, "He is not bad looking, I must say. Big biceps, abs and a cool hairstyle, he is in fact a boyfriend material." Aliyah entered inside and asked, "Who the hell are you and what are you doing here in Alice's room?" Elgin transformed into himself and said, "Relax, Aliyah. I'm Elgin. No need to get hyper." Aliyah asked, "Why are you roaming around as Rocky?" Elgin said, "It's a long story and I will explain it some other time." Aliyah narrowed her eyes and said, "I'm getting a little wind of what you are trying to do." Elgin smiled, "You are thinking wrong, sister. I'm justified in doing what I'm doing. It is for the best for everyone's interest."

Aliyah said grimly, "It is wrong. No matter, what you say or do. If you are thinking that this will make Cindy feel feelings for you then you are wrong. She is in love with Rocky and will not fall in love with an elf. A being which is out of her wildest imagination." Elgin smiled, "Everything new is someone's wildest imagination before becoming true. I am pretty sure that one day she will accept me as her life partner. My love will be accepted by Cindy and we will prove to be the epitome of new generation love story." Aliyah laughed, "Hold your horses, Mr. Overthinker. You are going too fast. She doesn't even know about your existence or even of any existence of an elf. Making her fall in love with you is too big, I bet you cannot even go in front of her in your true form." Elgin asked grimly, "Why? Am I that hideous?" Aliyah smiled, "No, fool. You are the prettiest amongst elves but between only elves. I don't think that you will be counted in humans." Alice said grimly, "Don't discourage him, Aliyah. He is atleast trying something to make his expectations become reality. But, you are not even doing anything to find my mother and only keeps lecturing and oppressing the weak." Aliyah said annoyed, "Finding your mother is not an easy job. She is lost or to say frankly, she is now in a very hard situation. I cannot assure you properly." Alice said grimly, "I don't know how much sacrifices I have to make for your silly mistakes? You are a headache." Aliyah said annoyed, "I'm the headache? I'm the one who gets headache dealing with people like you. Here, my dear friend is peeling my skin by making his identity vulnerable for silly reasons. And you are the same problem but your problem is that I am a part of your problems."

Alice smiled, "Thank God, you are finally accepting your mistakes and apologizing." Aliyah said angrily, "I'm not apologizing, bitch. It is still your fault and you are wholly liable for any casualties." Alice said angrily, "That's the problem with you. You always come with problems but never with solutions and always puts the blame on others. You make the lives of your allies unbearable." Elgin said angrily, "Will you two please shut up? I have to think of a way to find Alice's mother." Aliyah said, "What if we send elves in search of her mother. I know a few detective elves who have earned medals in the field of detective." Elgin smiled, "Actually that's quite a brilliant idea. But, those detectives are quite costly and again nowadays they cannot be trusted much." Aliyah said, "One of my bitter friend once said that if you don't trust somebody, he won't trust you back." Elgin said, "Okay. It's your call. I have to return to Cindy before she gets suspicious about me." Elgin formed a sphere around him and disappeared.

Aliyah looked at Alice and asked, "So, what do you say, girl? You up for this?" Alice said, "If you are up for this. I'm up for this." Aliyah took out a conch out of her pocket and blew it loudly." A white mist started to come out of the conch and then started to assemble into a silhouette and then a tall and slender elf appeared in front of them and smiled, "Hey, Aliyah. Long time no see." Aliyah smiled, "You are the one who got yourself entangled in your profession so deeply that you forgot all your friends and foes." The elf smiled, "Same as always. Who's this beautiful girl?" Aliyah said, "She's the one who is chosen by Mother Manaca for the execution of Xao Chang. She was also a vital person in bringing down Tammy and Krymon." The elf walked towards Alice and examined her carefully, "I have to say that she do have something extraordinary about her. Her aura signifies quite rebellious vibes." Alice said puzzled, "Thank you. Mr..." The elf replied, "Shanky. I cannot disclose my real name to anyone due to professional reasons. But, you can call me Mr. Shanky."

Alice smiled, "What type of name is that?" Shanky laughed, "Not very unique in our land. But, maybe a little awkward in yours. You can call me anything else if you want." Alice said, "Sherlock. I think this name will suit you." Sherlock smiled, "Mr. Sherlock reporting to you, miss." Alice smiled, "He's so cute. Why were you objecting his arrival before?" Aliyah said grimly, "Negotiations, my darling. He is quite shrewd in looting his customers and buttering them is his first step." Sherlock said, "It's part of my job. I don't personally like looting people and again I don't loot my clients. I ask for the rightful price after hearing about the job. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Every business is based on this formula." Aliyah said, "Okay. Let's see what price will you ask after hearing about our problem." Aliyah narrated the whole problem and Sherlock said grimly, "Actually that's not the job of a detective like me. If you want to have your job done, then you have to contact mercenaries like Hawk and Shotgun." Alice laughed, "Hawk and Shotgun? How do you guys come up with such entertaining names?"

Sherlock smiled, "Names can be deceptive, dear. Hawk and Shotgun are actually quite efficient and way more expensive mercenaries than ordinary mercenaries. They both have mastered the art of stealth mode killing and are considered the best in the business." Aliyah said annoyed, "Stop advertising your colleagues, Shanky. I will contact them when we are fighting big enemies like Xao Chang or Bacca, not to rescue an old woman." Alice said angrily, "She's not old." Aliyah ignored her and said, "You just have to get the information about Alice's mother whereabouts and then inform us about it. We will then attack the place and rescue her mother. Simple and effective plan." Sherlock said grimly, "Okay. If you want that way, then customer satisfaction is my topmost priority. But, I will charge fifteen thousand gold coins." Aliyah said angrily, "Are you fucking kidding me? Fifteen thousand gold coins for a tiny job. Fifteen thousand gold coins is three times more than the average annual income of the village you were born. I don't think any detective has ever charged so much money from his clients in the entire history of your shady agency."

Sherlock said, "The price is reasonable and if I tell the truth, this job requires even more money than I asked for. Detectives usually spy on people and not get indulged in some high level battle like this." Aliyah said angrily, "Fine. If you don't want to indulge yourself in our business, then I'm also very pleased to inform you that I'm also equally not interested in involving with you." Sherlock said, "Don't get too cocky, Aliyah. Nobody is going to negotiate with you on this. I'm the only person who knows how to take risk for you." Aliyah said, "Okay. But I will only pay half the fees before and you will receive the remaining fees after the job is done." Sherlock said, "As you wish. Customer satisfaction is my topmost priority." He disappeared in thin smoke.

Elgin landed on the balcony of Mr. Watwell's house and slowly walked inside and sat on a sofa. The butler came and asked, "Would you like something to drink, Mr. Rocky?" Elgin smiled, "No. I'm good. Thanks for asking." The butler gave him a puzzled look and went away. Elgin looked at him going and sighed in relief. He mumbled, "Doesn't this Rocky guy has any family or what? He lives in Cindy's house and eats and drinks here. What does this Rocky do? Other than being a house husband of Cindy." Elgin took out his phone and searched for Cindy's number, but to his suprise there was no number saved as Cindy or anything romantic.

He surfed through all the numbers but didn't found any number. He screamed loudly, "Hey, Mr. Butler. Can you please come over here?" The butler ran towards him and asked politely, "Anything that I can help you with, sir?" Elgin said, "Yes. Exactly my phone got a little messed in that encounter with the thugs and unfortunately I couldn't help but lost some important contacts, including my dear Cindy's. So, can you please help me with this small problem?" The butler said sadly, "Unfortunately, I don't have her number. But, as far as I know she and Mr. Watwell were discussing about some small gathering in the Oriental Hotel in Atlanta." Elgin asked, "Atlanta?" The butler nodded and went away.

Elgin mumbled, "I can definitely go there in a jiffy. But, going there as Rocky would rise many suspicious thoughts and again Atlanta is too far away for a normal mortal to travel in couple of hours. Only Mother Manaca knows what does that father-son duo has planned. I better be there before anything catastrophic happens. People who can send killers after an innocent being whom they barely know for selfish reasons are definitely don't deserve to stay near my Cindy." He walked towards the balcony and looked here and there and created a sphere around him and disappeared.....